China has approved the first nasal spray vaccine for research against the coronavirus, which took more than 904,000 lives and infected over 27 million people worldwide.
In November, China's only nasal coronavirus spray vaccine is scheduled to begin phase I clinical trials, recruiting 100 volunteers.
The vaccine is a joint project that includes researchers from Hong Kong University, Xiamen University, and Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the vaccine activates respiratory viruses' natural infection pathways to trigger the immune response.
Nasal spray vaccination could give vaccine recipients double protection – influenza and the novel coronavirus if it also includes influenza viruses like H1N1, H3N2 and B, Yuen said, adding that it would take at least another year to complete the three clinical trials.
Coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan City , China in December of last year, claimed 904,485 lives and infected 27,902,002 worldwide. According to data from the Johns Hopkins University the US is the worst affected country with 190,887 deaths and 6,363,729 infections.